An enterprise of geographically distributed print shops is a frequent occurrence in the production printing industry. Typically, resources in print shops are organized so that when a print job arrives from a customer at a particular print shop, the print job can be processed by performing one or more production functions. Maintaining print shops at multiple locations often necessitates providing the same labor and facilities at each individual site which, in turn, can lead to inefficient distribution of equipment and labor among the print shops.
Consolidating multiple print shop sites into fewer sites can save labor and facility costs. However, known methods of print shop consolidation are based on random or improvised approaches which cannot reliably and accuratly provide the most appropriate print shop consolidation options and which, therefore, result in inefficient consolidation of prints shops.
There is a need to provide a methodology of evaluating options for consolidating multiple print shop sites into fewer consolidated sites such that the most appropriate consolidation options can be selected.
The embodiments disclosed herein therefore directly address the shortcomings of known techniques of evaluating print shop consolidation options by providing a methodology which enables consolidation options that will yield equivalent or improved performance over the original enterprise to be prioritized and selected.